Psalms 88King James Version
The darkest psalm in the book. O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit. Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness. The psalm ends in darkness. A gift to anyone who has ever felt forsaken.
The darkest psalm in the Psalter. Heman the Ezrahite has cried day and night before God; his soul is full of troubles; his life draws nigh unto the grave. God has laid him in the lowest pit, in darkness and the deeps. Acquaintances are put far from him. He has called daily, stretched out his hands. Does God show wonders to the dead? Shall his lovingkindness be declared in the grave? The psalm ends in darkness: 'Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.'
This psalm goes to the darkest place faith has ever taken language and does not come out; it is the one psalm in the Psalter that ends without resolution, and that fact is its gift to those who need it.
verse: "Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." The last word is 'darkness.' There is no pivot, no praise, no sudden trust. Just darkness.
Superscription: 'A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.' Mahalath Leannoth may mean 'sickness and affliction' or 'the flute of mourning.' Heman is named specifically, making this one of the most personally anchored psalms. Book 3, just before the covenantal collapse of Psalm 89.
Heman the Ezrahite as the sole speaker, named in the superscription; God addressed throughout but seemingly absent; the dead who cannot praise; acquaintances removed; no community, no enemy, just God and the pit.
Psalm 88 is unique in the Psalter for its refusal to turn. Every other lament psalm finds some pivot; Psalm 88 does not. This makes it the most important psalm for those in severe depression, grief without hope, or suicidal despair: it validates the experience without requiring resolution. Heman the Ezrahite is identified in 1 Kings 4:31 as the wisest man before Solomon.
For when there is no turn coming and you need to know that Scripture has been to this place too. This psalm does not help you feel better; it sits with you in the dark.
1[A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.] O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:
2Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;
3For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
4I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:
5Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.
6Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
7Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.
8Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
9Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
10Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.
11Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
12Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.
14LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?
15I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
16Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
17They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.
18Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.